Fun in the Dark; Obsidian Discovery!
I have been asking myself lately, ‘Obsidian, where have you been all my life?!’. You ask, why weren’t you aware of the gem before? Everyone knows about arrowhead napping and all the fun to be had with this dark, volcanic glass. Sadly, it was just a novelty to find every now and again and decades ago, a lowly bead addition occasionally to jewelry pieces. There was actually a snobbery against it in my world. True story.
Hand Carved Sheen Obsidian
Juicy Mahogany Obsidian on top of various Sheen and Rainbow Obsidian samples.
My gem education largely is credited to frequenting gem and jewelry shows (emphasis on the world’s largest in Tucson, AZ). At these shows, you might be talking to the miner, the importer, the lapidary artist, or the jeweler representing the gemstones of their trade. Of course, everyone’s gem was more important than the next and the more common a gemstone, the less valuable they typically were. So with Obsidian, you just need to find some volcanic activity and you may be wading in it. In fact, whole hills are made of the stuff.
Obsidian coming up out of the ground like black gold, lol!
So then, what makes it wonderful at all? First of all, to my great surprise, there are many different flavors of Obsidian. This gives it real character, it’s not just jet black glass. Honestly, though, even the plain black stuff facets up beautifully and gives one another black option on the gemstone palette. In addition, there’s the red rippled Mahogany with iron inclusions, there’s Aurora and Rainbow with Magnetite inclusions, Snowflake with Cristobalite inclusions, and different sheens due to gas inclusions just to name a few.
No filter, straight out of the camera, shot of Rainbow Obsidian.
Rainbow Obsidian hand carved and mounted with a pearl.
Another upside to this Mineraloid (not actually a mineral, Obsidian, like Opal, does not complete a crystal structure) is that it is softer on the Moh’s Hardness Scale, 5-6 to be exact. That’s easier to work with than Agate and many other semi and precious gems that often find their way into jewelry. It shines up to a high gloss that looks wet and is incredibly supple to carve. The sky is the limit when designing with this cosmic looking gemstone.
More heart felt gushing will commence about Obsidian. It will soon be added to the Gemstone Page here on the website. What it is and how it’s made is a mystery of equal beauty to its presence in the jewelry so we’ll be researching and finding answers for that upcoming article. Meanwhile, look for more pieces on the New Jewelry page, feel free to like and share this blog and thanks for reading!
